


Teamwork

by Accal1a, astudyinfic, RedOrchid, TotallyNotKamz



Series: Flash Bang #1 (Indigo Team) [25]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Case Fic, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Crack, Gen, Ghost Hunters, Lightwood Siblings, Lightwood Siblings Feels, M/M, Soul Bond, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 22:44:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14507100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Accal1a/pseuds/Accal1a, https://archiveofourown.org/users/astudyinfic/pseuds/astudyinfic, https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedOrchid/pseuds/RedOrchid, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TotallyNotKamz/pseuds/TotallyNotKamz
Summary: Alec and Isabelle go to look at a house, and it doesn't goquiteas planned.Square #1 - Ghost Hunters, Square #2 - Fake/Pretend Relationship, Square #3 - Accidental Soulbond, Square #4 - Case Fic, Square #5 - Project Partners, Square #6 - Snow Days, Square #7 - Royalty AU, Square #8 - Underwater, Square #9 - Fake Dating, Square #10 - Sleep Deprivation/Exhaustion, Square #11 - Space AU, Square #12 - Graveyard Meeting, Square #14 - Epistolary, Square #15 - Detective, Square #16 - Hurt/Comfort, Square #17 - Soulmate AU, Square #18 - Musician AU, Square #19 - Meet Cute, Square #20 - Chocolate, Square #21 - Cryptids, Square #22 - Beach, Square #23 - Secret Romance, Square #24 - Blind Date, Square #25 - Homesick.





	Teamwork

**Author's Note:**

> So...when we realised we couldn't win, we decided to make a truly collaborative work, attempting to hit every square in the bingo grid. This is it, in all its cracky glory. I hope you enjoy.

“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” Alec sighed, staring at the brownstone looming in front of them.  Only a handful of people could convince him to do practically anything they wanted. Two. Two people. He didn’t even know if that counted as a handful.  

Still, here he was, standing here at sunset, staring at a building he would have walked past without thought previously.  They found reports online that this home was the most haunted place in Brooklyn, but as someone still occupied it, they couldn’t figure out how to get in to check it out.  Their first real ghost hunt and they couldn’t even get in the front door. “So, what do you recommend? How are we going to convince them to let us in?”

“Easy,” Izzy replied. She pointed to a sign next to the perfectly manicured hedge. “It’s up for sale; we’ll simply pretend that we’re interested in buying it, and have the realtor show us around.”

“The realtor’s called ‘Christian Family Homes’,” Alec noted. “I don’t think we’re in their target demographic.”

“Ironic, isn’t it?” Izzy pulled her phone out of her pocket and started dialling. “Don’t worry, big brother. I have a great plan—yes, hello? My name’s Isabelle. My husband and I just walked past this gorgeous little house on Hunts Lane, and we were wondering—”

***

Alec glared at his sister from where she was standing across the room from him.

Isabelle had jumped away from him immediately after realising what had just happened, but Alec wasn’t taking it anywhere near as well as her.

“Sure! Touch the suspect glowing thing inexplicably sitting on the coffee table apropos of nothing.”

“I wanted to see what was making it glow, there didn’t seem to be any wires or any such…”

“Well, I think we can say that what was making it glow was _magic_ , don’t you? A sentence that I never thought I’d say by the way, so thanks for that.”

_God, his sister was frustrating sometimes._

“I am not frustrating!” Isabelle said, having heard the comment in her head.

“We’re telepathic because of you! I think that definitely falls under the umbrella of ‘frustrating’. We need to fix this. Now.”

_It might be quite nice to know what Alec was thinking for once, he very rarely opened up and -_

“I’m going to stop you _right_ there.” Alec said, crossing his arms, “STAY OUT OF MY HEAD.”

Isabelle giggled and Alec fought the urge to throw a book at her. “Would if I could, big brother. Would if I could.”

***

Alec had to think logically, it was only getting stranger now. It was a haunted house and realtors clearly wanted something to happen to them, they had let them check the house alone.

“We need to find who currently owns the place,” Izzy mused while looking through some of the furniture in the room.

_Obviously._

“Well if it’s so obvious to you why are you not doing anything?”

“I’m assessing the situation first,” Alec snapped back. “This is beyond a conventional case.”

Izzy rolled her eyes. “We can figure out the situation if we find some clues as to what the hell just happened to us.”

“So what? Do we split up and see what we find?”

_That’s what stupid people in movies say before something terrible happens._

“Did you just call me stupid?”

“Of course I didn’t,” Izzy answered with a smile. “Come on, let's see what we find.”

“Start at the ground floor and work our way up?”

“Sounds good.”

They searched the hallway and the kitchen first, easily falling into step with each other. Alec found that their new telepathic abilities actually helped a lot for this kind of task—though he’d rather spend a week on ichor duty than admit it out loud.

 _I think it’s really cool, too_ , he heard Izzy’s voice in his head. _It’s nice going out on a mission together; we should do it more often._

Alec always liked working with Izzy, they worked well as a team, their closeness an obvious benefit.  Though the telepathy was far too close for his comfort. There were some things his sister didn’t need to know about.  

Trying to distract himself from more risque thoughts, Alec tried to think of the most benign things he could.  

“Could you please stop yelling about snowball fights in my head?” Izzy snapped, though she seemed more amused than anything.  “It’s the end of April, Alec. How did you even come up with snow of all things to try and drown out those thoughts of Magnus that I still heard.  If you don’t want me to hear things, then don’t think them rather than trying to cover them up. Or, cover them up with actual thoughts about the case.”

 _Focus, Alec. Focus,_ he told himself.  

“That’s all I’m asking,” was Izzy’s laughing reply.

***

They’d looked over most of the space in the house when Isabelle realised that her brother wasn’t paying any attention to her at all.  
She tried to get his attention but he wasn’t answering her. The soft smile on his face stopped her from being worried about him too much, though she did rather need him to focus on the job at hand. Reluctantly, she focused her mind on her brothers and pushed slightly. It was as if a bubble had burst and with no effort at all she was in her brother’s head. She was seeing pictures rather than just his thoughts from earlier. She didn’t know whether that was because the curse they were under was getting worse, or whether it was just that they hadn’t explored the full range of issues yet. Either way, it enabled her to see possibly the most distressing thing she’d ever seen of her brother.

Alec was hunched over a desk and writing in a book. 

Isabelle looked over his shoulder and saw that it was just three words over and over again in various sizes, colours, and types of handwriting.

 _Mr. Alexander Bane._

Clearly watching ‘Shrek’ over and over again with Madzie had made something stick.

Isabelle snapped back into reality and stared at Alec for a few seconds before she burst into laughter. This immediately caught his attention.

“What?” Alec got even more confused when he saw tears forming in his sister’s eyes. “What?!”

“I’m sorry, you’re just adorable!” Isabelle managed to say after calming herself down.

Alec tried hard to concentrate on her and saw the words in her thoughts.

“No.. No!”

“Its okay Mr. Alexander Bane, I won’t tell anyone,” Isabelle promised.

“How did you do that?”

“I just concentrated and then I popped inside your head,” she explained. “Give it try.”

Isabelle wanted her brother to trust her more, but she wasn’t going to give away any of her embarrassing secrets. She concentrated on a memory, a memory of her and a certain someone sneaking into a pool in the middle of the night.

She remembered it as clearly as if it has just happened, the feeling of the water touching her body.

Alec jumped, the memory of being wet and kissing Meliorn, something Alec never wanted to do.  Never in a hundred, million years. And yet, there was Izzy’s memory and he was right in the middle of it as if he was the one that dated the man and not his sister.

“Ew, ew!  Stop it, Isabelle!  Please, I’ll give you anything if you just stop.  Focus on the mission here because if I have to think about _that_...”  Alec shuddered.  “I don’t want any of your thoughts about dating him because then it feels like I dated him and I don’t want to do that.  Not even fake, imaginary, memory whatever this is!”

This was getting too creepy for him and they hadn’t even found the ghost yet. “Can we get just get this over with?  Maybe the ghost can tell us how to break this bond.”

“Okay, yeah. Good plan.”

Together they moved up a staircase towards the top floor. Something was up there; Alec could feel it. There was a tension in the air, an undertone of magic growing steadily stronger as they climbed. With every step, his body felt as though it was growing heavier, fog seeping into his mind, pulling him down towards sleep.

Next to him, Izzy yawned.

Alec's ears popped as they crossed the threshold of the first room, and he felt the air sucked out of his lungs. The next breath was harder, as was the one after that. He felt like he was stuck in an atmosphere without any air at all.

Isabelle grabbed his hand and he could tell that she was similarly feeling it.

“Alec?” She whispered, just before she fell to the floor in a dead faint.

Just before Alec himself passed out, he noticed a globe with what looked like constellations on it, and he wondered whether that was pertinent to the investigation.

*******

Alec woke up confused, his surroundings were strange to him.

“Izzy?” he whispered, remembering his sister had been with him before passing out.

It was dark and foggy, Isabelle didn’t seem was there. He stood up and walked around, feeling dirt under his boots. Where the hell was he?

“Hello?” he called out. “Is there anyone here? Where am I?”

No one answered.

Alec walked around some more, it was hard to see with the fog. He finally saw a light in between all the fog, so he ran towards it. Alec reached what looked like an immense gravestone, the light was resting on top of it. It seemed to have a human shape, but he couldn’t distinguish any features.

He walked closer to the grave and read the name in it.

_Alexander Hamilton._

On the grave, Alec found a note, weathered and faded.  Judging by the yellowing, he guessed it had to be hundreds of years old.  How it had survived so long without vanishing due to weather, vandals or thieves, he didn’t know.  

Looking closer, he read:

_My dearest Alexander,_

_Even after you passed, I stayed true to your causes and beliefs.  I have done so much to make sure you are never forgotten. You did so much good in the world and you deserve to be remembered for it._

_I fear my time on earth is coming to an end, and I only hope that we will be reunited on the other side._

_Rest easy, my love, for we will be together soon._

_Always,_

_Eliza_

Alec was surprised to find tears in his eyes and wiped them with the back of his hand, the letter hitting closer to his heart than he would have liked.  

He took out his stele and held it above the letter, pushing emotion back in favour of properly examining it. The adamas glowed white in his hand, lighting up the parchment, allowing him to trace every line and curve of the slanted handwriting.

“Alec, is that you?” he heard someone’s voice say from far away.

“Izzy?” Alec tried to look past the fog, but it was almost impossible. “Izzy! I’m here!”

“Alec?” he heard again and this time he noticed Izzy sounded like she was in pain.

Alec put away the note safely inside his jacket and ran towards Isabelle’s voice. He called her name again, hoping for another response that might help locate her. Instead, he heard her cry.

“Izzy, what’s wrong?” he asked, finally seeing her figure kneeling down on the ground.

Her hands covered her face and she cried very softly. Alec immediately kneeled down and wrapped his arms around her. Isabelle moved to cry on his shoulder instead and slowly wrapped her arms around him as well.

Alec held his sister, wishing he could take away her pain.  Everything he’d ever done in his life had been to make his sister happy and safe.  So seeing her in pain was the last thing he wanted.

Jace always talked about soul mates in the most romantic of senses.  Whoever he was dating that week was obviously his soul mate and destined to be with him forever.  But Alec often wondered if soulmates were something else. Something deeper than romantic love, the one person who would always be there, who you could always count on.  It could be a lover. Or a friend. Or a parent.

Or a sibling.

Holding his sister while she cried, Alec knew Izzy was his soulmate, just as she was his.  It had always been Alec and Izzy against the world, and he would make sure it always would be.  

“Are you okay, Iz?  Are you hurt?” he asked, pulling himself away from his own thoughts to focus on his sister.

Izzy looked up at him, her eyes shiny and unfocused. “Alec?”

“Yeah, it’s me. How are you feeling?”

“I missed the audition,” Izzy replies, as tears start running down her face with renewed force. “My one big shot to make it into the Philharmonic, and I blew it, Alec!”

Alec tried to make some sense of what his sister was saying, but he couldn’t quite manage it.

“Audition?”

“Yes, I’ll never get to play with them now. How could I be so silly?”

Alec wasn’t sure what was happening, but he knew he would be there to support his sister regardless. “It’s okay Izzy, it’s okay.” He said, rocking her slowly in his arms.  
“I thought I’d get to meet that guy again. I thought...I guess I thought the universe would engineer another meeting, just like the first time when we reached for the same muffin in the bakery and our hands touched.”

At least that part made sense and Alec breathed a sigh of relief.  “Is this the guy who argued that the only type of acceptable muffin are chocolate ones with no sprinkles?  Because if so, I think you can find someone with a little better taste than that.”

He was still pretty sure that whatever was happening was in direct connection to this ghost hunt.  Because otherwise, why would his sister be mumbling such nonsense.

“Iz, if there really is a ghost or whatever around her, you need to snap out of it.”  Remembering their telepathy, he reached out with his mind. _Izzy, come on.  Clear your head and complain about my clothing or something.  Just let me know you are okay._

Alec felt it immediately. He was inside Isabelle’s head again. This time it was a forest and he was seeing through her eyes. There was a roar and a strange winged beast with two hooved legs appeared in front of them.

“It's the Jersey Devil,” someone next to him said, but he couldn’t distinguish their face or voice. It was all blurry, unlike the previous time.

Before Alec (or—really—Izzy, since he was now inside her head) could react to the beast, the scenery changed again, turning from a forest to a stormy sea, from which a giant part-hound-part-otter like creature was emerging. Then again to a snowy mountain, then grassy beach next to a dark lake; Alec’s head began to spin as the scenes flashed by faster, warping his perception of reality.

He came to with a startled gasp, looking around the room before his eyes fell on Izzy who was doing the same.  She looked as confused as he was.

“What is going on here?  Why is the ghost doing that?”   _What purpose did any of that serve other than to freak me the fuck out?_

Izzy laughed, “Language, Alec!  But I don’t know what that was either.  I mean, it felt like...longing, almost? Like they are looking for something they lost.  Or someone! Alec, what if they miss someone? A secret lover or... I don’t even know. But wouldn’t that be romantic?  Stuck behind as a ghost because you want to be with your true love but can’t.”

“Sounds more gothic than romantic,” Alec muttered, just hoping they got out of there without anything else weird happening to them.

Alec started to look through the room, unsure what he was even looking for but knowing he had to do _something_ to work out what was going on. They couldn’t leave the house like this, they _certainly_ couldn’t leave the house without working out how they could stop being linked psychically. He loved his sister, but he didn’t need to be any closer to her than they already were.

“Gee thanks,” Isabelle said from where she too was sifting through paperwork dumped unceremoniously on a bookshelf.

 _You know what I mean. I love how close we are, but there’s close and then there’s_ **_close_ ** _._

“I’m teasing, Alec, don’t spiral...hang on.”

“What? What have you found?” Alec asked, almost leaping across the room in his haste to learn anything new about their strange predicament.

“It’s not a secret love,” Isabelle said quietly, handing the piece of paper to her brother, “well not quite. It’s a secret loss. These people were supposed to be set up by their parents. It looks like the ghost is mourning what might have been.”

“Then how the hell are we supposed to fix that?”

“I don’t know,” Izzy admitted. “But we have to try. I think that’s the only way to break the hold the ghost has over the house.”

Alec took the piece of paper that Izzy handed him. It was a letter, like the one they found on the grave, easily more than a hundred years old.

 _My dearest, Alexander_ , it began. _You never knew this, but we were almost betrothed once. My father’s oldest friend was a captain in George Washington’s army; you saved the man’s life during battle, and, in return, he took it upon himself to secure you a wealthy wife. He spoke to my father; my father was agreeable. We were to be introduced at the winter’s ball, where you first met my sister._

Alec looked up from the letter, meeting his sister’s eyes. She moved closer to him, loosely wrapping an arm around his waist as they read on together.

_I’m leaving for England in the morning, but I’m leaving a piece of myself behind: a locket, containing a lock of my hair, hidden behind the loose brick in the mantlepiece on the second floor. Keep it close, and think of me, so that—even when we’re an ocean apart—I may always remember my home._

“The locket!” Izzy and Alec exclaimed, simultaneously, both of them racing towards the stairs.

They found the loose brick in a fireplace in an upstairs sitting room, and Alec felt his heart beat quick from excitement, as he watched Izzy reach inside the hidden compartment and pull out a silver locket, black with age.

Staring at it, Alec tried to remember what they were supposed to do in times like this.  “Do you still have the salt and matches?” he asked.

Izzy nodded and handed them over.  Alec opened the locket and placed it inside the fireplace.  First, he poured salt inside and then, lit it on fire. There was no reason a metal necklace should burn without fuel but it went up like tinder, the fire lighting up the whole room before burning out just as quickly.  

But even with the fire out, the room retained the warmth and light, something that had been missing the whole time they were there.  “I think we did it,” Izzy said after several minutes. “I think she’s finally at peace.”

Alec hoped that was the case.  

“Iz?  You should probably call that realtor back and tell them we aren’t interested.  I don’t think I want to see this house ever again.”


End file.
